What is Planned Parenthood Hiding?
by Joseph Backholm
It
seems that the only thing Planned Parenthood wants you to know about
these days is how to confidently have lots of sex with lots of people
and how to deal with the pregnancies and diseases that result from
having lots of sex with lots of people. Not that those are connected
in any way of course.
Otherwise, it seems they spend a great deal of time and effort trying to keep information away from people.
Take
parents, for example. For decades now, Planned Parenthood has been
fighting a parent's right to know if their minor daughter is going to
have an abortion.
During
the last legislative session, they appeared at a Senate hearing and
argued for two hours about how harmful it would be if parents were aware
of their daughter's situation.
Washington State still has fewer restrictions on abortion than tattoos, sun beds, and ear piercings.
Now, their campaign of secrecy has picked a fight with laws regarding public record requests.
Like
health care providers do with operations they perform and diseases they
treat, abortion clinics are required to report information about
abortions they perform to Washington State's Department of Health
(DOH). This information helps the DOH understand trends in health care
and medicine for the purpose of education, prevention, and controlling
public health risks.
Because
this information is held by a public agency for public purposes, it is
subject to public information requests provided patient privacy is
protected. This supports the public's right to be informed about what
their government is doing.
A
public records request was filed in March of this year with DOH seeking
information about the number, types, and locations of abortions as well
as other information, including whether the mother has had previous
abortions.
In
response, Planned Parenthood went to court to request a court order
that would prevent DOH from providing the public information about the
abortions their facilities perform. The hearing will take place this
Friday morning in King County Superior Court, 516 3rd Ave, Seattle, in Judge Lum's court room - E713.
The most obvious question is, why?
Planned
Parenthood goes out of its way to insist that abortion is just one of
many valid options in the women's health care suite of services.
In
fact, they sponsored recent legislation they called the "Reproductive
Parity Act", which suggests through its name that there is complete
parity between the decision to give a child life and the decision...not
to.
Had
it passed, it would have required every insurance policy to pay for an
abortion simply because it would pay for a live birth.
In
their argument that these public records should not be disclosed,
Planned Parenthood claimed that they, "...could be used to stigmatize
patients." Never mind the fact that patient information is being
redacted.
Perhaps
Planned Parenthood is concerned about what will be revealed once the
public knows who they are targeting with their "services".
Regardless,
their argument seems to be a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that
they know that taking a child's life will never be a morally equivalent
choice to giving life a chance no matter how hard you rationalize it.
So
can't we just talk about mammograms (that we don't actually do) and all
the sexually transmitted diseases we've caused...er...prevented through
our education. Which is it anyway?
When
you're proud of something, you put it on Facebook. When you're not
proud of something, you request a court order keeping the information
from those who have a right to it.
After Friday, we may have a better idea of what they are trying to hide.
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